Bahá'í UK Boundary Commission Web Page

UK Bahá'í Boundary Commission Web Page

This page is not now active.
The NSA office has taken responsibility for this work using different criteria from those used thus far.
Please address any further queries to the NSA
Scroll down below next section to refer to earlier work.

Current Situation
During the many hours spent subdividing the rural areas of the UK many anomalies have arisen and it has proved difficult to draw clear boundaries in many areas despite the fact that the area co-ordinators have worked long and hard to assist us - many thanks to all those involved!
Further careful study of the principles set out by the Universal House of Justice and consultation at the Baha'i World Centre by the National Spiritual Assembly members serving on the Boundaries Commission has led the National Assembly to fundamentally revise the principles on which the new Assembly area boundaries will be based.
Instead of using post codes and population density as criteria, the new Assembly areas will be based on the electoral wards and divisions used in electing District Councils. The principles are set out below in greater detail.
Unfortunately this means that all the arduous research work based on the principles we were using before is no longer relevant, although the National Assembly has assured us that it was instrumental in bringing forth the new decision.
In many ways the new principle make the job easier. The District Councils have already divided the country into suitably sized areas and the boundaries are clearly and unambiguously defined. Many District Councils have maps and lists of wards on their website and it will be easy for any individual to determine which ward (and hence which Baha'i community) they live in by checking their District Council website or calling their District Council offices.
We shall have to provide the National Assembly with lists of the wards in each of the 328 council districts in England Scotland and Wales by the end of February - a considerable task. This process will, of course, result in many more Assembly areas than would have been the case using the previous principles.
The National Assembly has explained the new general principles to us as follows:

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

It has therefore been decided, following the guidance of the Universal House of Justice, that the following principles will apply throughout the UK, except in Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight, the islands of Scotland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands:

1. Cities and Metropolitan Districts will not be divided.

2. In every district in England, Scotland and Wales all towns will be local Assembly areas. Towns are defined by one or more of the following criteria:
(a) has a Town Council; (b) has a Market Charter; (c) has more than one Electoral Ward.

3. By definition, all other areas are rural or semi-rural areas. Each of these will be divided according current electoral wards, each Ward forming a local Assembly area.

4. As a matter of general principle the new communities will carry the same name as the electoral ward which they cover. We recognize that this will not work universally and we wish the County Co-ordinators to include proposals for more appropriate names, if necessary, with their fine-tuning proposals (see below).

6. It is understood that fine tuning will be required in some places. For example, in some places a town (as defined above) may be included in a larger electoral ward. The County Co-ordinator should then determine whether the town can stand alone with the rural area having a separate Assembly or whether the Assembly should be for the whole electoral ward. In other cases, very small electoral wards might be combined to form a larger Assembly area.
Any proposals for such fine tuning must be referred to the National Spiritual Assembly, as before.

7. NORTHERN IRELAND
The current process of defining Local Assembly boundaries (in consultation, as now, with Edwin Graham), should be completed, following the specific guidance of the Universal House of Justice for Northern Ireland.

8. ISLE OF WIGHT
The current proposals are accepted.

9. SCOTTISH ISLANDS
The current process should be completed.

10. ISLE OF MAN
The Tynwald constituencies will form the basis of Local Assembly areas. The Co-ordinator should advise on which of these need to be combined (following the general principles for England).

11. CHANNEL ISLANDS
Each island will form its own Local Assembly area, following the guidance of the Universal House of Justice.
This was released to the UK Bahá'í Community on the
UK BAHA'I NEWS EMAIL SERVICE
in the following terms;
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the UK
nsa@bahai.org.uk

15 February 2001

Dearly loved friends,

As you know, some years ago the Universal House of Justice asked the National Assembly to change the boundaries of the Baha'i communities in the United Kingdom so that they would conform more closely to the spirit of the guidance of Shoghi Effendi in 1923 that `in every locality, be it city or hamlet, where the number of adult declared believers exceeds nine, a local "Spiritual Assembly" be forthwith established'.

The Universal House of Justice has this week approved the criteria for establishing new boundaries for Baha'i communities as follows:
1. Cities and metropolitan districts will not be divided.
2. Towns will be designated as Local Spiritual Assembly areas according to the following criteria:
* a Town Council is established
* a Market Charter exists
* or the town has more than one District Council electoral ward or division

3. All remaining rural and semi-rural areas will be divided by District Council electoral wards, and each ward will be a Local Assembly area.

There are special arrangements for Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the islands off Scotland.

Over the next days and weeks the National Assembly will be providing all communities with information about the changes to their boundaries, how this affects their incorporated status and what steps they need to take with regard to their local funds. As you will appreciate, this is a mammoth task which needs to be completed before Ridvan so that we can enter the Five Year Plan with the our new communities and Assemblies in place. To this end the National Assembly has asked two members of the staff to work exclusively on this project over the next several weeks in order to provide communities with the information they require. This mean there will inevitably be delays in dealing with other requests made of the office and we pray that you will be understanding.

The Universal House of Justice in its letter of 14 February to the National Assembly pays tribute to the `dedication and hard work of Mr Graham Jenkins' as the Boundary Commissioner, and the National Assembly wishes to register its deep appreciation to Graham and his wife Patsy for the many long and tedious hours they have spent over the last year working on this project.

With loving greetings,

National Spiritual Assembly

Earlier work has been retained below







Latest changes added 23 December 2000 C.E.

Contents

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England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To contact the Boundary Commission by email at graham@jenks.demon.co.uk please click here or telephone us in Huddersfield UK on Tel +44 (0)1484 852780.

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Useful Sources of Information

General Registry Office Scotland

for population & area tables by Ward and Parish and Post code sector within 1991 Scottish Districts
email anne.blackwood@gro-scotland.gov.uk Tel : 0131-314-4266 or write to
Customer Services , GROS , Ladywell House , Ladywell Road , Corstorphine , Edinburgh , EH12 7TF

Parish Registers and Registrars of Scotland reprinted 1995

Information and Maps for the whole of Scotland
by S.M. Spiers(Editor); (Price £4.00 but available in good Scottish reference libraries)

Office of National Statistics (ONS) England & Wales

Ward & Parish Monitors for each County at £2.80 with population and area.
Post Code Monitors by area
Email Ellie.Lord@ons.gov.uk or write
Census Customer Services, Segensworth Rd, Titchfield, Hants PO15 5RR Tel 01329 813800

Census Office for Northern Ireland

Towns and Villages Booklet at £5.00
Email Helena.White@dfpni.gov.uk or write to
Census Office for Northern Ireland, McAuley House, 2-14 , Castle Street, Belfast, BT1 1SA.

Municipal Year Book 2000

for all Local Government Districts in the UK
(2 Volumes at £170.00 but available in good reference libraries)

Postal Address Books

for all regions of the UK published by Royal Mail (20 Volumes for the whole of the UK) at approximately £8.00 but available in good reference libraries and available free from Royal Mail for your own district only.
These include maps of postal districts eg AB33.

Postal Address Web pages

for all regions of the UK published by Royal Mail
Access www.postcodes.royalmail.co.uk
which allows you to do 50 post code searches in any 24 hour period free of charge
If you know an address; number, street and mail town it will give you a post code.
It is helpful when defining which small towns or villages 'belong' to which new Bahá'í centres by post code

Postal Address Post Code Sector Maps

for most regions of the UK published by GEOPLAN
Access www.geoplan.co.uk
These maps are expensive at £25 for a County sheet unlaminated but can save a lot of work. County Co-ordinators who buy them may claim the cost as expenses and should share them with other Baha'is in their area. Contact Details;
Geoplan 14-15 Regent Parade HARROGATE HG1 5AW Tel 0990 133169 (paper maps) Fax 01423 525545

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Bartholomews Streetmap Utility

This is a facily available for consulting road maps for any part of the UK. Use it in conjunction with the map most relevant to you. It is probably a good idea to print it off the web. To use Streetmap click here.
N.B. There is a convert option in Streetmap that Rob Lawton found that converts OS grid references to post codes, ie. you just put an arrow on the map within the village that you need to know the post code of, and hit convert!

Alternatively to try multimap.com click here.






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A Plain Man's Guide to subdividing a Bahá'í district

What you will need;
A road map which covers your existing district.
A post code directory for the area. or access to web page
www.streetmap.co.uk - see section on resources -road map utilities
Some knowledge of the district
An Ordnance Survey Map and or A to Z of the district would also be helpful

How to do it;
Step 1 - If your district has a population density less than the UK national average (2.4 people per hectare) select about 20 towns, villages or other centres of population in the district.. These should be the most important. More or less does not matter too much but select about this number. Where the Bah"'Ís lives should not matter

Step 2 - Out of those select about 4 to 8 which will be the centres of the proposed new Bah"'Í districts. Again more or less does not matter too much but select about this number.
Call these the major centres of population. They should not be so close together that there are no green fields between them. If they are close together amalgamate them into one named centre eg Old Deer and Longside or Pickering and Norton. They should be what the man in the street would think of a centres of a community. Typically they will have a secondary school, a multi GP health centre, a church or 3, a pub or 3 and a decent set of local shops.

Step 3 - Look up the post code sector of each of the 20 centres. The post code sector is made up of the post code district code (the first half of the post code) and the number from the beginning of the second part of the post code.
For example typical post code sectors would be HD7 3 or MK13 8.
Tip. It may be easier to look up the post code of High Street Potterton or Station Road Potterton or Chapel Hill or Church Street than just Potterton. Choose a common Street name that suits your part of the country.

Step 4 - Now look at how the 20 centres of population relate to each other. For each of the minor centres (which are those left when you take away the major centres) decide where, out of the major centres, its population is most likely to go to school, to the Doctors, to local shops etc.

Step 5 - Make a list of the major centres with their post codes down the left hand side of a sheet of paper and against each major centre list the minor centres with their post code sectors. Try not to split villages with the same post code sector (eg MK14 9) across two or more major centres. The minor centres will be attached to the major centres to form a new LSA district based on the major centres. The post code sectors will in general be used to identify to which new LSA district a believer belongs.

Step 7 - Check the map of the district to make sure no area has been forgotten. It may be necessary to liaise with your opposite number in an adjacent community to make sure that no area on the border has been missed or double counted.

Step 8 - Send your recommendations or queries to the Boundary Commissioner.








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How to subdivide a district

See our up to date Plain man's Guide


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Boundary Commission Report

to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United Kingdom

(delivered at the Warrington 'Committees' Conference on 15 January 2000)

Summary

This report outlines the reason for its preparation and the guidance given by the Universal House of Justice. It then considers several general issues such as the proposed size of new Spiritual Assembly areas and which parts of the UK are to be considered rural. A set of parameters (as Scenario 1) is then proposed and the effects of using those parameters to define new assembly area boundaries in the various regions of the UK are developed Eg In Scenario 1; There would be a total of about 1,226 LSA areas in the UK. There would thus be a large number of unopened areas and incomplete Assemblies (No attempt to quantify this has been made at this stage). Several example districts are included.


Click here 15 page Report to NSA 15 January 2000 (excluding tables and appendices.)


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Map of SE England

Smaller SE England map

This is an outline of a map of South East England (South-East of Warwick) to be used for showing proposals for subdividing the existing local government areas for new LSA areas.

Key to detailed map
Counties in red signifies no change proposed
Counties in green signifies subdivision
Counties in yellow signifies some districts to be subdivided
Districts in yellow dotted red signifies no change proposed
Districts in yellow dotted green signifies subdivision
To see the detailed (117kb) Map of SE England click here.

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Map of SW England & South Wales

Smaller SW England map

This is a map of South West England & South Wales (South-West of Warwick) to be used for showing proposals for subdividing the existing local government areas for new LSA areas.

Key to detailed map
Counties in red signifies no change proposed
Counties in green signifies subdivision
Districts in yellow dotted red signifies no change proposed
Districts in yellow dotted green signifies subdivision

To see the detailed (105Kb) Map of SW England and South Wales click here.


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Map of Northern England

Smaller North England map

This is an outline of a map of Northern England (North of Warwick) to be used for showing proposals for subdividing the existing local government areas for new LSA areas.

Key to detailed map
Counties in red signifies no change proposed
Counties in green signifies subdivision
Counties in yellow signifies some districts to be subdivided
Districts in yellow dotted red signifies no change proposed
Districts in yellow dotted green signifies subdivision
To see the detailed (182kb) Map of Northern England click here.

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Smaller Northern Ireland map

Sketch maps of Northern Ireland

This is an outline of a map of Northern Ireland which will be used for showing proposals for subdividing the existing local government area for new LSA areas.

To see a more detailed Map of Northern Ireland (East)
(without clear county boundaries) click here.

To see a more detailed Map of Northern Ireland (East)Post codes (without clear county boundaries) click here.

To see a more detailed Map of Northern Ireland (West) (without clear county boundaries) click here.

To see a more detailed Map of Northern Ireland (West)Post codes (without clear county boundaries) click here.

To see a less detailed Map of Northern Ireland (with clearer county boundaries) click here.


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Map of Orkney Islands

Orkney map This is a map of the Orkney Islands which will be used for showing proposals for subdividing the existing local government area for new LSA areas. Parish Populations for Orkney Islands are as follows
see below for

A map of Orkney Parishes is shown below (from Parishes Registers etc. for Scotland)

Orkney Parishes map
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Map of Western Islands South of Skye

West Isles map


This is a map of the islands off the west coast South of Skye.


Populations and Post codes are as follows
Arran (4474) (KA27)
Bute (7300) (PA20)
Coll (172) (PA78)
Colonsay (106) (PA61)
Cumbrae(1393) (KA28)
Eigg (?) (PH43)
Gigha (143) (PA41)
Iona (130) (PA76),
Islay (3518) (PA42-PA49)
Jura (196) (PA60)
Lismore (3485) (PA34 5)
Mull- Tobermory (1214)(PA75)
Rhum (141) (PH42) Tiree (758) (PA77)


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Smaller Scottish map

Map of Scotland

(excluding Orkneys & Shetland)


Key
Unitary Counties in red signifies no change proposed
Unitary Counties in green signifies subdivision

See a clearer, enlarged and more detailed Map of Scottish LSA areas showing the extent and existing LSA areas.
OR see a similar Map of Scottish Unitary Counties showing the existing local government areas.
You will need to pan round them.

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Map of Shetland Islands


See a Map of Shetland showing its extent, parish populations and proposals for subdividing the existing local government area to form new LSA areas or this more detailed map showing parish boundaries. Map of Shetland Parishes






Map of Wales

This is a map of the Wales which will be used for showing proposals for subdividing the existing local government area for new LSA areas.
To see the detailed (141kb) Map of Wales click here.

Proposed Boundary Definition file for Wales

Only districts regarded as 'rural' with a population density of less than 2.4 people per acre are to be subdivided but some larger town may have adjacent villages or suburbs attached from adjoining rural districts .

To see the (29Kb .pdf) proposed boundary definition file for Wales Click here
These are long documents and you will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to read them.
To download a free copy from Adobe click here


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Proposed Boundary Definition files for England

Only districts regarded as 'rural' with a population density of less than 2.4 people per acre are to be subdivided but some larger town may have adjacent villages or suburbs attached from adjoining rural districts .

To see a list of English districts to be subdivided in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) form. Click here
These are long documents and you will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to read them.
To download a free copy from Adobe click here

To see a list of English districts by county Click here


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Proposed Boundary Definition files for Northern Ireland

Only districts regarded as 'rural' with a population density of less than 2.4 people per acre are to be subdivided but some larger town may have adjacent villages or suburbs attached from adjoining rural districts .

No Boundary files are available for Northern Ireland at this time.
Watch this space.






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